the sephone blog

Somebody told you, “You need to make a Facebook Fan Page, for your business, they are really easy to make and they are FREE!”

That is true and if you have made your own facebook fan page, then you know just how easy it is. (We are making the assumption here that you have your own personal Facebook page, because you need one in order to make a Fan Page.)  Here is a direct link to Facebook’s explanation on how to do it.  It is listed under “Advertising” so many people get spooked and don’t bother to go there.  If you are more of a video watcher here is a good one (they are talking about restaurants, but it fits for anyone).  It is well worth the 10 minutes to see the step by step using screenshots – so you can see exactly what to do!

Why should my business have a Facebook Fan Page?

Marketers are talkers and of course they are all talking about why your business should have one, it is the RAGE!  Here is  a great post about it, there are tons of great posts about it, but I like this one because it is concise and doesn’t use a lot of $10 words. The meat and potatoes of this post is this and I quote: *

• Facebook has more than 350 million active users
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

*numbers as of 2/10

Your business wants to have as much “eye” time and be “top of mind” to as many people/perspective or current clients as possible.

Why you don’t want a FACEBOOK Fan Page?

Just because it is free doesn’t mean it is right for you, right now.  When a “FAN” opens up their Facebook account in their “News Feed” section, there is the latest news from their friends, the causes they follow, and POOF! there you are with your latest special event or feature that you want to share with the world – unless of course you haven’t updated your page for 6 months and therefore it doesn’t post anywhere.

When people plan to come to visit your store, restaurant or whatever, if they look thru Facebook they can find you, but they also find that your last post was from December 2009.  They figure you don’t think it’s important, so neither do they and perhaps they don’t search for you at all, they choose to do business with the business that is in their “News Feed” once or twice a week.

Managing Facebook Fan Pages is bigger than just making one.  They don’t take long, but they do take doing. Make somebody accountable for doing it, just like you do when you have someone answer your business phone.  There are many companies out there (Sephone included), that can help you do this.  It doesn’t have to be expensive, once you see how it goes for a few months you can decide if you would like to take over the reigns!

We know, we hear it all the time, social media is making you feel like you are about to go “over the edge!”

Everyone you know is on Facebook, people on TV are asking you to follow them on Twitter, you email inbox is full, your kids text you when they need a ride home – yes, it is okay if you want to scream — we get it (covering our ears).

We can help.

Twitter

If you are a larger business, you need to know what your clients, customers or former customers are saying about you.  Because believe us they are saying it.  Just because you dont hear it, doesnt mean it isnt being blasted about the internet, perhaps a TV station or newspaper has a story about you or your company.  It is being tweeted all over and you have no control over it spreading.  You do have control over it, IF you know what is being said and how you can communicate to address it.

If you are a smaller business – even tho you know that Facebook is FREE, how do you fold that into your all ready full day of work?  You are out there trying to generate revenue or wait on customers – this is the last thing you want to mess with, right?

We are social media JUNKIES.  We know that every social media strategy isn’t the same, just like all businesses and situations aren’t the same.  What works for one, may not work for another.  One size NEVER fits all. And maybe it isn’t even Facebook that you need (gasp!)

Let us help.
Give us a call, we love to hear your dreams and your goals.
Then of course, help you on the road to get there!

For those of us that are “40 something,”  you remember what life was like before email.  I remember the first email I ever sent was to my boss (back in the 90’s).  Once I sent it, I got up from my desk, walked across the building to his office and we sat and waited for it to arrive.  Both of us looked at one another and said…”You have got to be kidding me, this is supposed to be faster than a phone call or a fax?”  Well unlike him, I knew in my heart of hearts this email thing wasn’t going to go away. He kept saying to me, “Cotiaux, this internet thing is another marketing fad.”  Now we still giggle about it when we catch up with each other a few times a year – the old fashioned way.  By PHONE, and now that has changed to, it is by CELL phone!

So email consumes us and with good connectivity it arrives instantly at its intended destination.  And then there is SPAM! SPAM you may not have known you asked for by subscribing to a newsletter and SPAM that you never asked for in the first place!

But where is this all going?  Do you want all your emails going to your blackberry (or other smart phone?)  Our clients send me large files that can be completely unusable to see on my blackberry so why do it?  AND sometimes I need thinking time for when people ask me questions and I need to talk to others in order to answer it.  These people (our team at Sephone),  don’t work 24/7 they actually have a life!

Is it really that important to be THAT available to EVERYONE you know in all facets of your life ALL the time (weekends, holidays, etc.) ? AND how do the people you are WITH physically all the time feel when you are constantly looking down, checking that flashing red light?  It is only going to get worse.

Then when you reply to those emails from your phone, are you really saying it how you really want it to be received? Or  you may not have your glasses on, you feel rushed to respond with an incomplete answer and have to go back and redo it and in the meantime you have an email out there that is misspelled and maybe not really what you meant it to say.  All in the name of our 24 hour “news” cycle! “We’ve come a long way baby,”right?

The solution is different for everybody.  But managing IT without IT managing YOU is the biggest challenge.  I struggle with it all the time.  In fact I find if I lose my blackberry or have a poor signal (we are in Maine after all),  I feel pretty stressed AND I don’t have all my email going to it!  I am really trying hard not to be run by technology.

What are your thoughts and ideas?

Would love to hear (and share) them!

If you are like most of us, you probably have one (or more) of the following:

• A monthly sizable cable bill or perhaps satellite
• A netflix account
• A bank of movies stashed someplace for a rainy weekend.

I know for me, there is nothing more frustrating in cruising through the channels and seeing nothing interesting or even worse those darned infomercials!

If you have a computer, smartphone*  and a connection to the internet, then I have a couple things to share with you.

Hulu.com describes itself as “Watch your favorites. Anytime. For Free.”  Alex Baldwin had done some commercials around superbowl time, so you may have heard of it.  There are a variety of channels, Home and Garden, Games, Sports and lots more.  There is even a tab where you can see the most popular ones.  You create a profile, (user name – which is your email address) and a password and it is free.  After you tell it your interests, (during the profile process), it will even suggest things for you to make your search easier and you may get a suggestion of something you never thought of!

Then there is another thing that I really enjoy and that is called USTREAM.tv.  These are LIVE feeds that you can watch on a variety of things one of those things is that awful oil leak that is spewing nearly 5,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.  But not all of it is bad, there are some great wildlife LIVE cams, one of my favorites are the Peregrine Falcons that are up here in Maine it is managed by the Biodiversity Research Institute. Now, keep in mind there is no editing, these are live cameras.  AND there is the opportunity to chat in a chat room next to what you are watching if you want.  But again, there is no censorship, so keep this in mind, if you are watching with kids. I can honestly say, there hasn’t been anything too bad, except this BP Oil gusher seems to have “unleashed the hounds”  in the chat rooms.

AND if you would like a LIVE Broadcast of your own, your son or daughter’s soccer game or recital, you can have your own shows.  For those of you with iPhones, you can film right from the event and tell your distant family members and friends and they can enjoy what is happening LIVE!  Once you stop filming it stops broadcasting.

So give it a try, there will be a lot of summer events worth sharing and rainy days may make for some down time to check out Hulu and USTREAM.tv

*check your plan for potential data charges.

If you read this blog frequently, we talk about random things on the internet.  Security, getting good deals, saving time – stuff like that. But we also talk about how to promote you and your business in a cost effective way.  Sometimes the cost is “TIME” which we all only have 24 hours in each day, so that is precious, but it isn’t CASH out of your pocket.

In the passed 3 weeks we have had 3 clients that have had ideas about “getting their word out”, interestingly enough 2 of them were not specifically related to their businesses, but to causes that they find dear to them.  They want to do something good, share an experience, raise some money for their cause.

Many people that use social media tools like Facebook and Twitter all ready have had success creating buzz, getting people to attend an event, raise cash for a cause, this is nothing new and the people using these tools, in a few clicks they have spread the word to people that want to listen rather than to waste time with those less interested.

You can do this with girl scout cookies or a PTO event, saves lots of time and money on the phone.

If you have a long term project or cause that you are working on, perhaps a blog may work. (Here’s a “How To” Link) Blogs can keep people engaged over the long haul. Friends and family far and wide.  One of my friends used “Caring Bridge” while his wife was in the hospital and in treatment for breast cancer.  Hearing the perspective from a husband with a family struggling through this time was inspiring and was so different from many others having these experiences.  A young husband, with twin boys helping mom (and wife) through the fight of their lives, the good news is they are winning the fight now!

Even if you haven’t embraced these tools quite yet, people that have are seeing results.  You may be amazed at how many folks you know are and how “out of the loop” you may be by not participating!

Lots of customers will call us for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because when they “Google” something their site isn’t where they think it should be.

Here are just 3 quick reasons why this may be so:

1. The site was designed several years ago and doesn’t conform to Google’s latest search engine practices.
2. The content doesn’t change on it very often.
3. Your company has changed and the look and feel of your site just doesn’t match what goals you have in your mind for your recent marketing efforts.

These are all easy things to have happen. And these things are all things that can happen to anybody.  Looking at your site objectively is just as challenging as looking at your business objectively.  It is like a parent thinking, “My child is ugly.” – that just doesn’t happen!

A website needs a “facelift” using SEO and most often a new design if any of these 3 things are the case.  Oftentimes you can do all the perfect SEO things and still your web traffic isn’t what you want it to be.

Why?

Is it because your website may be “ugly?”  I don’t mean “ugly” from the definition of “ugly,” but I mean Google can rate you top on the list all day long, but if people continue to get to your site and decide it wasn’t what they thought it may be, or it was frustrating to find their way around, Google finds out and you will slip in your rankings. 

This is because your website no longer makes the user engaged when they get there. They have no reason to care to learn more.

And hey, that’s good information to have!  If your business isn’t growing or changing with the challenges of the times, then you are not doing business!  One way this can really pop out at you is to be engaged in marketing your company online, you insert a link to it, once people get to the site, they “BOUNCE” off it.  (Maybe you are doing some social media, Facebook fan pages, etc.) The visitor doesn’t like it, it isn’t what they thought it might be, they could be confused by your message.

Who was the person that said, “Part of the problem is recognizing there is one” ?  No one is telling you, your business is bad, your company is bad, you don’t even know who these people are!  But they are telling you something needs to change.  Either a new look and feel, spruce up your logo, change the content on the front page, add some new things that draw them in .  What is your competition doing? When you change the message so it reflects how your company is NOW. – Depending on your company perhaps people want to interact with your website?

A website isn’t meant to look the same, be the same, act the same for eternity.  How people are using the internet today is different than they were 5 or even 3 years ago.  You probably are too!  So spice it up a bit.  If you are marketing a site that isn’t really who you are or isnt being found, all the programming your web developer can do to get your ranking in Google better may not matter because once your potential customer gets there he may be saying, “Ewwww.”

We talk about Search Engine Optimization on this blog all the time.

Here are some links if you would like to read more:  Click here

Here is one about Site Measurements

Remember “Search Engine Optimization” is like painting a house. A fresh coat of paint looks nice from the outside, but if the house is falling down and in bad repair, then you need to look at the HOUSE (your website) itself.

If you have been watching my Facebook posts or tweets I have been in a technology nightmare for more than a week.  You never really know how much you depend on something until it doesn’t work now, do you? Just like everything else!

Some bad person or robot  decided to use my Twitter address to SPAM my followers by sending them a direct message about some quiz I wanted them to take.  My followers (I have only 800 or so) started sending me notes because they knew I don’t do that.  So I go in to my Twitter account and changed the password.  Then I believe that same robot kept trying to get into my account (using the old password) and I got locked out of Twitter when I tried to log in.  It also effected my Tweetdeck Account. Twitter is such a great tool for me, when I couldnt use it, it completely threw me off guard and my schedule just flew out the window. AND I had to wait for Twitter and Tweetdeck to unlock my access, which took a lot longer than I thought it would.  If you are looking for any help like this on Twitter, click here.

THEN, I tried to synchronize my Blackberry using Desktop Manager. Unfortunately, because I had tried a trial version of MissingSynch earlier this year and didnt like it, I decided to never used it again. Couldnt figure out how to uninstall it. When I tried to synch using Desktop Manager it kept bumping into MissingSynch which kept telling me to buy it for $39.95 and wouldn’t allow Desktop Manager to synchronize for me.  SOMEHOW, as I looked over at my Blackberry I noticed that I had this spinning hourglass on the screen that was all it did, spin and spin.  When I “Googled” the error code it was horrible news.  Google sent us to Crackberry.com. At first glance it looks like a store, it is more than that! There are helpful forums and here is a link to them. So I learned then my whole operating system was history.  I still don’t know exactly how it happened, but with the help of Central Maine Wireless and my business partner Scott, I was able to get a loaner Blackberry and uninstall MissingSynch (the uninstall file was missing, so we had to be cautiously creative to remove it!) I will never recommend this application to anyone, even though I am not sure what happened in my situation but I am very leary of it.

The good news is, I have a copy in a secure cloud of my stuff that didn’t get effected.  The bad news was, I didn’t dare synchronize it with my loaner because I didn’t want to risk anything else happening! So finding people’s phone numbers and other information that I had in my original phone has been problematic.

Maybe it has been the full moon or just technology gremlins, but when it happens to you, take a deep breath and know the world isnt over, it just has slowed down a bit!!

Was a comment on one of my report cards in 1st grade.  It was also followed up with something like,  “…but sometimes her concern for others getting along and cooperating interferes with her own work.”

Who’da thunk it?

My friends, family and business partners can attest for it, but what about in Social Media areas?  How do people know that you REALLY CARE?

Or better yet, “How  do you know who doesn’t and is just pretending to care?”  It seems like these days 60-75% of my work time is dedicated to doing something in Social Media and it is increasing every week.

Social Media brings us together and yet distances us all at the same time. Periodic non-visible online interactions take longer to sort out who is real and who isn’t.

I recently attended a conference where Chris Brogan spoke (it was my first time meeting him and I was sooo excited)  Mike Volpe also made a great presentation.  If you don’t know Chris, he is amazing you should follow him.  He is as real as they come and in person, he can make you laugh so hard that your sides split.

Mike Volpe of Hubspot fame was a lot different than I thought he would be.  I watch their podcasts religiously and read their blogs and I would recommend anyone feeling intimidated about social media and applications you can lurk around on any of these sites and learn a ton.

What did I mean when I said Mike Volpe was different than I thought?  I knew he was smart, I knew he knew his stuff.  His podcast partner Karen Rubin, is mega bubbly.   When I met Mike at the conference, what I met was a kind of shy guy.  Not what I expected.  He puts forth so much confidence on his sites and podcasts, I was a bit intimidated at the idea at the face-to-face.

Chris Brogan has this message that he calls “Be Human”, he has a great post here outlining what this means.  In fact, when you Google the term “be human” his blog entry comes up in the first 5 searches.  Rather than to reiterate what these captains of industry have to say, I included several links here so you can easily find them.

Clients will ask me, “Why do I care if someone’s eating high fibre cereal for breakfast?’ or “That their kids soccer game was a blow out?” Truth is YOU may not care, but one of the thousands of other readers may. If you were one of the people in the battle to fight cancer, you could provide support to many in different situations and stages just by seeing these buzz words.

This makes a “human” connection that is important to an often hard to connect with medium.  Some of us don’t use real photos as profile shots all the time.  Some of us are vague about how to find us.  Maybe our user names aren’t exactly intuitive. The internet is full of great people as well as weirdos.  That doesn’t necessarily make you a “Nervous Nellie,” but if someone is trying to learn about you or your business, you may seem a little less “human.”  What you have to deliver and say becomes that much more important.

First impressions can be misleading.  Establish yourself or your business as the someone you ARE.  Stick with it on blog comments, blog posts, other platforms.  Because after all, the keyboard doesn’t type itself. A HUMAN does!

I was one of those kids that ate one thing at a time on my plate – in fact I still am kinda like that now!  (I am weird that way I guess).  I certainly seemed to not have changed, when it comes to my grasping technology.

I know I have mentioned before, my old boss used to say, “You can eat an elephant one bite at a time.”  And though often I failed to see eye to eye with him on many occasions, now that I am older I can really see his wisdom in so many things I thought before as crazy, misguided prattle.  (Jeez – I hope he doesn’t read this blog!  AH!)

But he was THE GUY that told me in the early 90’s that the internet was a fad.  And to his defense, he held on to fundamentals.  Sales and Marketing as a plan not as a lark and certainly the internet to him, was “a Lark” back then. WHO KNEW back then what the internet would be today?  So thanks Phil, for making me work harder and understand the world I was in, while allowing me to reach into the fire and find out which time I would get burned.  I love him for that, truly.

So here we are again.  The NEW lark -  “Social Media” – Wow!  There are so many!  But which one to try first?  I say, try one that works for YOU FIRST – PERSONALLY. Then you will feel more confident about trying something or appreciating the web for your business promotion.  If you have a TWITTER account, start looking for people that are interested in the same things you find interesting.  If you have a FACEBOOK account, start REALLY reading what the folks are doing and engaging to a point that you feel comfortable.  If you don’t have one, then start one, you wont be sorry. It is easy to use and you can connect with family, friends and even business contacts.

I have to admit, I have tons of social media outposts and some I use all the time and some I haven’t had time to use at all.  But I do try to make an effort to play with a new toy at least twice a month.  But that is ME.  Doesn’t mean it is YOU.

Not forgetting to “eat your peas” or “eating an elephant one bite at a time” is a recognition that it is OK, NOT to take the plunge, but to just stick your toe in the water and find your way at your own pace.  Don’t be overwhelmed my the technology, just try it, it is FREE and if you don’t like a certain one, dump it and move on.

The appreciation of all of it, is really useful in making your own decisions in trying to navigate the new way to promote and connect!

Over the weekend, on Facebook, there was a post from a peer.  I have never done business with this person, but I do know them.  The post was in regard to how to use certain things tools with social media, I gotta say, the post left me shocked. The tone was just wrong to me (and it was not directed toward me.)

Look, social media is changing every second and I am a believer of trying things out – even if you do them WRONG as this person’s post indicated, relax -you can always fix it.

OBJECTIVE is key if you decide to use Facebook, Twitter or if you decide you want to blog (or to pay someone else to do it), on your behalf.  A PLAN is important too and a stash of content, stuff you read, links, etc. for when you are in the mood to write.  Frequency in posts makes you interesting and lets face it, it is like a re-run of Seinfeld.  You may love Seinfeld, but you will find yourself surfing off the channel because you know what is coming up… new posts regularly is always a good thing.

To say that we, (Sephone) haven’t had the challenges you may have, would not be truthful.  We get busy, customers need jobs done and our Sephone Blog may become stale.  My own personal blog has fallen victim of that.  Sometimes, I just don’t feel the urge or sometimes I just don’t feel interesting enough to post anything.

I look to people that I only know online to encourage me.  I call Chris Brogan my online therapist! (We have never met in person.)  Here is a post he wrote two weeks ago that really hits the nail on the head for me. Brogan helps, he doesn’t scold.  You are an adult you don’t need scolding, when you are trying to learn something new. Generally, you are trying to teach yourself – in between work, home, kids, etc. Chris Brogan has a book.  Yeah a hard cover book, an old-fashioned printed on paper BOOK!  It is called “Trust Agents,” VERY easy to read and to understand and not intimidating.

So what is my point?

Learning is GREAT.
Learning about Social Media and how it can work to promote your business is GREATER.

Don’t feel guilty, if you don’t get it right the first time.  Some “EXPERTS“  can be arrogant, generally, they are the same in person and it takes a bit longer to recognize it online.

Reaching out and asking for help from someone that understands that you are finding your way is the GREATEST!

So don’t be discouraged or embarrassed. Don’t feel intimidated enough to turn away.  You can do it and there are so many people to help that don’t “ball you out “ when it isn’t perfect.

Most people aren’t trying to “cheat,” they are just doing something that is familiar to them and within some of the social media platforms-Facebook for example, are rigid.  These aren’t bad, but you need to learn them and sometimes you make mistakes.

NEWS FLASH you are human.